While most of the 2025 season was a nightmare that Atlanta Braves fans were just hoping to awake from, there were some positives. Drake Baldwin played so well that he was named a NL ROY finalist and is one of the favorites alongside Cade Horton to win it. On top of that, the Braves did manage to have two Silver Slugger finalists despite the team's struggles in Matt Olson and Austin Riley.
It was honestly pretty wild to see Riley get the finalist nod given that he only played in 102 games before his season was ended by hernia surgery, but that sort of thing can happen in votes like these with a relatively small sample of voters who are also coaches. Olson seemingly had a strong case for the hardware after posting an .850 OPS last season including 29 homers and a league-leading 41 doubles.
Unfortunately, both Riley and Olson faced stiff competition for the Silver Slugger in their categories and when the winners were announced exclusively on FanSided's Baseball Insiders Youtube channel, neither Braves slugger won.
Both Austin Riley and Matt Olson fell short in their bids for Silver Slugger awards
Riley losing his race was not a surprise as it was honestly much more surprising that he was named a finalist in the first place. However, Manny Machado led all NL third basemen by a substantial margin with a 123 wRC+. It would have been sweet to see Riley steal that one, but Machado was the correct choice.
The race over at first base between Olson, Freddie Freeman, and Pete Alonso was decidedly less clear. Alonso led the way with a 141 wRC+, but all three guys were pretty closely grouped together and had pros and cons to their candidacies. Sadly, Alonso and his 38 homers ended up taking home the trophy this year.
It will be interesting to see how the offense performs under new manager Walt Weiss with everyone completely healthy for a change. Olson and Riley along with Baldwin, Ronald Acuña Jr., and even Ozzie Albies when he is right are all capable of Silver Slugger type seasons. Time will tell if they can actually put up the results they need to to be in the conversation by the end of 2026.